The CONSORT libraries are working cooperatively to provide a richer, broader collection of information resources to the faculty and students of member institutions. By paying closer attention to the amount of duplication in current purchases (i), funds can be freed up to purchase more unique materials and more primary source materials for use by all CONSORT faculty and students.

The guidelines below are intended to be used in conjunction with the practice of setting priorities for orders, such as is done on some of the CONSORT campuses, with a "Priority 1" (purchase for my library even if copies available elsewhere in CONSORT), or "Priority 2" (purchase for my libraries only if a circulating copy is not available for loan elsewhere in CONSORT).

Collection Levels and Acquisitions Commitments:The "appropriate number of copies" are general guidelines, not a firm limit on number of copies. Local collection development policies and instructional needs continue to be the primary factors in selecting titles for purchase.

I. Popular reading

This includes genre fiction and 'how to' books. These are generally not collected by the CONSORT libraries. One exception is award-winning children's literature which is collected by several libraries to support children's literature studies and teacher education programs. Popular level titles generally may be obtained from local public libraries.

II. Basic Information Level (ii)

a. CORE Materials - Examples:(iii)

Major reference works
Major writers
University press titles
Areas that support interdisciplinary core areas of interest and circulate heavily such as women's studies, ethnic studies, and environmental studies

Appropriate number of copies in CONSORT: up to four.

b. BASIC Materials - Examples:

General monographs that introduce & define a topic
Major literary criticism and collected works
Quality non-fiction of broad interest (memoirs, biography, essays)
Monographs on major artists and art movements, major exhibition catalogs
Selected world language materials including works of major writers in languages taught at institutions

Appropriate number of copies in CONSORT: up to three.

III. Study or Instructional Support Level - Examples:

Works of scholarship accessible to upper level undergraduate students but requiring some prior knowledge of the subject
Literary works by respected but lesser known writers
Edited collections of scholarly essays
Scholarly series

Appropriate number of copies in CONSORT: up to two. We would expect many titles at this level to also be available from OhioLINK.

IV. Research Level - Examples:

Foreign language monographs in disciplines other than literature
Monographs narrow in scope either by geographical or topical area of interest.
Collections of primary source materials in reproduced format (e.g. microfilm or microfiche)

Appropriate number of copies in CONSORT: One copy in areas of particular interest to a campus, occasionally two copies. We would expect a significant portion of these to be supplied from OhioLINK or through interlibrary loan.

V. Exhaustive/Comprehensive level - Examples:

Local college faculty and alumni author collections [e.g. Denisoniana, Kenyon Authors, OWU Alumni Publications, College of Wooster Author Collection];
local special collections and archives [e.g. OWU's Archives of Ohio United Methodism]

Appropriate number of copies in CONSORT: One - these materials are generally unique items held in local special collections departments. There may be multiple copies in the cases when any individual item falls in the categories of II-IV above.

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i. Results of a sample study of recent book purchases by the four CONSORT libraries suggest that individual CONSORT member libraries may be spending from 60% to 70% of their book budgets on titles duplicated at one or more of the other member libraries.

ii. Levels taken from: Anderson, Joanne S. Guide for Written Collection Development Policy Statements. 2nd ed. American Library Association, 1996. See also Statement of Collecting Levels at Oberlin College Libraries web site.

iii. The idea for this document and many of the examples were taken from the CTW Consortium Proposed Collecting Levels for Consortial Cooperation, Connecticut - Trinity - Wesleyan Consortium internal document, 2002.